Ollie's floor forever

Thursday

Dec 17, 2009 at 8:28 PMDec 17, 2009 at 8:36 PM

Ollie Butler stood in the foyer of the ancient Keith Gunn Gymnasium at Victor Valley High, talking about how he missed being a teacher.

He taught for 32 years, retiring in 1994 and substituting until 1998. He barely mentioned a subject. It happened to be history, though he never said whether his academic specialty centered on the recorded past of America, Tudor England or the medieval nomads in what is now eastern Uzbekistan.

Oh yeah, he coached a little basketball at the school too, he said almost in passing.

"I'm ubiquitous," Butler said. "Is that the word? I'm always here."

His bright blue eyes twinkled and a slight smile under his silver mustache betrayed him. He knew good and well that he had the right word and that he, Ollie Butler, was the living definition of it at Victor Valley High School.

The Victor Valley Union High School District honored Butler on Thursday night not for his teaching — he's already in the school's hall of fame for that part of his profession — but for his career as a basketball coach. The floor of the Gunn Gymnasium was officially dedicated to Butler before the Jackrabbits' game against visiting Granite Hills.

Butler is the winningest coach in San Bernardino County history, compiling a record of 605-251, winning 13 league titles. He won 10 consecutive titles from 1974-83, making two trips to the CIF finals.

He shook someone's hand as they walked by. Then another. He spoke again of how he enjoyed the classroom before his voice, bathed to this day in a warm Tennessee accent, trailed off as another one of his former players walked over to shake his hand.

"You don't win without the players," he said emphatically. "And I had some great players."

Guys like the Hyder brothers who played for Butler back in the 60s then went on to become talented college players. Greg Hyder even played briefly in the NBA.

"Coach Butler always had our backs," said Jerry Hyder, who played for Butler in the mid 60s then went on to star at Eastern New Mexico. "He always elevated our game. And he was more than just a great coach. He was like a father figure to us."

And other players like Tony Anderson, who played for Butler in the 70s and went on to play at UCLA. Some two dozen former Jackrabbits' players came to honor the coach in front of the school's ROTC unit, a full band, choir and school district dignitaries. Butler knew them all, reeling off names and humorous stories like a bird singing in spring.

Butler won a spot on the University of Oklahoma team as a walk-on after serving in the Air Force back in the 1950s. He graduated, coached at a few schools and earned extra money working at Disneyland over the summers. He met his wife Sharon and wanted a permanent teaching job in California. Keith Gunn hired Butler at Victor Valley after a job at another high school fell through.

"I told him, 'Mr. Gunn, I am very enthusiastic on the sidelines,' " Butler recalled telling the principal. "So I was on the sidelines, yelling and raising hell and he called me into the principal's office the next day and said, 'you told me you were enthusiastic. Now I know what you were talking about.' He actually wanted to put seat belts onto the coach's chair to keep me in my seat."

So the legend of Ollie Butler was born. He not only won, he performed. He ranted and raved, once kicking a chair and punching a hole in a blackboard at halftime, according to several sources.

Butler had a fit over details. He demanded focus at practices. Each drill fit a specified time, no more, no less. Ten minutes on passing drills, then ten minutes on rebounding and ten minutes for shooting.

"He was a fanatic about fundamentals," said David Kniss, an English teacher at Victor Valley who played for Butler and wrote a book about his coach called "Ollie: The Ollie Butler Story."

"He would almost use a ruler to show you to the inch where you were supposed to be on the floor. But he didn't swear. He didn't belittle anybody. That's why we loved him."

Butler swept up the gym and kept it shiny and neat, just like he would his own home. Perhaps that's what eventually damaged Butler's career as a coach, Kniss said.

He ruffled the egos of some of the other Victor Valley coaches, running the gym as if it was his, Kniss said. When a brawl erupted between players, coaches and referees after a game between Victor Valley and Damien in the Riverside Tournament in Moreno Valley in 1989, then-school principal later-district superintendent Julian Weaver took action.

"I think there was a test of egos, a test of wills," Kniss said. "I think Julian thought that there was nobody too big for the rules, not even Ollie Butler. Maybe Julian wanted to show him who the real boss was."

So far behind now. On Thursday night, Butler sat attentively at the Gunn gym, watching the ROTC drill team twirl their rifles. Perhaps their precision pleased him as much as seeing his name scripted across the hardwood he spent so much time cleaning.

He didn't have any favorite players then, and he wouldn't discuss any now, he said from the foyer. He tried to treat his players equally because they all were. All equal and all special.

"I always had great respect for the players who didn't play much but came to practice on time every day and worked their butts off," Butler finally said.

Another former player came in, followed by another with his nephew. Then another with his son.